As we grow in faith and discipleship within the Church, we become capable members of the Body of Christ who fight in the spiritual battle that the enemy wages daily against us. God doesn’t intend for us to stay infants or children in our spiritual development; He wants us to grow into seasoned veterans for the work of His Kingdom.

The difficulties we face are often symptoms of a root problem: sin. And while we can easily make the mistake of focusing on the symptoms, nothing will change in our circumstances until we deal with the problem. God gives us tools through Scripture to help us address our sin, and it’s our responsibility to put those tools in our spiritual toolbox so that we can grow and mature in our walk with Him.

The Bible is to a believer what milk is to a human being: nourishment. And while it’s understandable that new Christians are infants in their spiritual maturity, there has to come a point when we stop acting like newborns and start developing into the life God has in store for us. The only way to do that is through spiritual growth.

Are you growing in your relationship with God on an ongoing basis, or are you stuck in toddlerhood? Growth is a sign of spiritual maturity, and it’s also vital to our ability to disciple other believers. Progress, not perfection, will be shown on our crown in Heaven one day — the crown that we can then turn around and lay at the feet of Jesus.

We can only stay “baby Christians” in spiritual infancy for so long. Sooner or later, we should be growing to the place of being able to help disciple other new believers. A life spent following Jesus is a life in which He’ll always be asking us to do new things for His Kingdom’s work — and we’d better be ready to step up and obey when it’s our turn.

As newly born-again Christians, we’re like infants in our faith: learning everything for the very first time. And that’s okay! But sooner or later, we each need to grow up spiritually in order to be functioning, healthy members of the body of Christ. The more we grow, the more we realize that the Church isn’t all about me — it’s all about we.

“When I grow up”…”I’m almost an adult”…”You can’t make me”…do any of these phrases sound like something you or your kids might have said growing up?! In the same way, we often act like rebellious teenagers and lack spiritual maturity in our relationship with God. But we can’t live the Christian life alone. That’s why God designed His Church — to be a community of believers that will help each other grow and mature.

We all start out in the “shallow end” of spiritual maturity when we first accept Christ as the Lord of our lives. But eventually we have to swim out into the deeper waters of discipleship as we read His Word, seek His will, apply His truth, and grow deeper in our relationship with Him.

When we’re in the early days of spiritual “infancy”, it’s understandable that we’re still going to struggle with certain sins that make a mess of our lives. But spiritual maturity involves growing in our relationship with God so that over time, the mess created by sin becomes less and less. When we plug in to the local church and become part of a church family, we get the help of others to scoop up our messes — and eventually we become “scoopers” for other people’s sin struggles, too.

For each and every one of us, life as a follower of Jesus is always a work in progress. The struggle against sin and temptation isn’t a single event, but a constant journey. We’ll never “complete” it or arrive at our destination until the day we see Jesus, but until then we can continue growing and maturing in our pursuit of Him.

It’s easy to find ourselves in a spiritual rut. We can get stuck in infancy or childhood or adolescence instead of taking responsibility for our spiritual growth so we can mature in our relationship with God. But as long as we choose to live in immaturity, we’ll never be able to raise new Christians to become disciples and make disciples themselves.

Without Jesus working in us, we’re all bound to a life of sin and consequences that could have been avoided if we’d only followed the wise instruction of Scripture. The Bible calls us to step up and live as the new creations that Christ has made us to be. Instead of acting childishly and running after the pleasures of the world, let’s submit to God in maturity and allow Him to transform us.